By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Childcare has multiple issues in Reno County, according to Abundant Life Child Care Center director Heather Faulkner. Faulkner is serious that those who are engaged and want to start a family should already be calling potential providers.
"Infant care is one of the greatest needs, though all ages 0-5 is a real struggle," Faulkner said. "That doesn't even count in after school care for so many school age kids, but for infant care specifically, that is a very, very limited number in our community, for a complex, various list of reasons that face child care centers in regard to that. If you're thinking about having a child, I would encourage you to call a center or a home child care provider and go ahead and get on the list."
There are regulatory hurdles that all providers have to go through. Faulkner believes that KDHE oversight is necessary, but she'd like more information from them.
"The first thing I would do is be able to identify to a child care provider, if you don't meet that regulation, here are the steps, specifically, we're going to take with you," Faulkner said. "If I get stopped out here on Main Street for driving 25 miles an hour over the speed limit, which, holy smokes, if I do, I should be arrested, but I know what steps are going to be taken. If I don't pay that ticket, I know what steps are going to be taken. That is not the case for KDHE when it comes to child care providers. I have no idea what their step is going to be and no one can give me that in written form."
This is a Topeka issue, because the local staff want to tell providers what they can do.
"Our local surveyors have a heart to help child care providers," Faulkner said. "Their hands are very tied by regulations that are legislated regulations. One of the biggest frustrations, I think, as a child care provider is, you're reading a state law. It's written in legal form. Then, to understand fully what that means isn't there. Our local surveyors, they have resources that spell that out clear. They have resources that could tell us how to meet that regulation. Our regulatory agency of KDHE does not allow our local surveyors to give us that information. They can't tell me how to specifically meet that regulation, let alone give me the layman's terms for that regulation, so sometimes, I may be cited for the intent of a law."
Faulkner also made it a point to say that the child care survey process that the community is going through this year needs to be allowed to work itself out. It will take time to figure out what problems can be fixed at the local level, what problems are legislative in nature, and frankly, what problems are not solvable because of a lack of resources. The survey will take until October to complete. The survey is being funded in part by the Schmidt Foundation, which shares leadership with Eagle Radio, the owners of Hutch Post.